While the nation and in fact the world had only congratulatory messages over the Great achievement of our scientists in successful landing on the moon, I was shocked to come across so much negativity in the media within a few hours! While within the country opposition parties immediately started crediting NEHRU for his vision and thus the achievement, what was very distressing was the BBC anchors words" I think more than 700 million indians dont have access to toilets. Really, should they really be spending this sort of money on a a space programme" Anand Mahindra in reply to this, wrote" Really? the truth is that in large part , our proverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent . Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not just the Kohinoor but our pride and belief in our own capabilities" He added "because the goal of colonisation : is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND SPACE exploration is not a contradiction: Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride and self confidence. It creates belief in progress through science . It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of proverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration" What a befitting reply from a true proud indian!
The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspirations is the best sentence. We are all proud of our scientists . Syamala Syamala
@joylokhi, Every country has a right to aspire and execution of such aspiration shows how talented that countries citizen are! It is not easy to be the first country to land on the South Pole of the Moon. The countries that focus on their mission irrespective of all the noise coming from outside will succeed many more times. We know how hard the Engineers worked to kickstart the development of cryogenic engine and what some of them encountered because of foreign involvement to stop this development. India was determined to explore space for a fairly long period of time. Those noises coming from outside based on political vendata can't override the extraordinary accomplishment recognized by the world scientists. India announced itself as one of the major space research countries in the world. It will go in the history as an extraordinary accomplishment and no one can take away that name. I am sure NASA will be excited and will be happy to work with the Indian ISRO scientists to explore more.
With that much negativity surrounding the moon mission , let me share a sunshine story I read yesterday. Interestingly, Pakistani media has heaped praises on India's success with its moon mission 'What a visual': Pakistani media heaps praises on India, Chandrayaan-3 mission
